The Js are Silent

Fall of 2023 has been a busy time for travel, work (for Krista), and (in Rory’s case) looking for work. Krista has been hard at work for a contract she now has from Purdue University, working on similar subject matter as before. Rory has been getting to know the clean energy/GHG reductions/environmental world in Europe, meeting with a lot of interesting people in Slovenia and throughout the continent. Here are a few highlights of what we’ve been up to.

Brussels

In September, Rory was invited by a colleague from California to attend the “Flexcon” conference in Brussels. So he took an all night sleeper train from Ljubljana to Germany, then another few trains to get to Brussels (a somewhat wacky route thanks to Deutsche Bahn cancelling a direct train to Brussels.)

This was a conference organized by an industry association for companies who “provide flex” for the grid. In order to integrate intermittent renewable energy like solar and wind, the grid needs things like batteries, demand response, and other tactics to ensure a smooth supply of energy. So now there is a whole industry that is offering, and experimenting, with different ways to do that. There are many similarities in Europe to what California is facing with its infamous “duck curve,” though the entire energy industry is all very different in Europe. It was an interesting conference, and one of the most interesting parts of it is that the conference facility incorporated an ancient chapel, pictured above. A few more pictures taken around Brussels…

The main square in Brussels.

A large crowd watching a statue of a small boy urinating–this world famous tourist attraction is called “Manneken Pis.”

Berlin

Some months ago we caught wind of that a rare event was going to be happening, which is a live symphonic concert by Brian Eno. We couldn’t pass that up. Krista’s never been to Berlin, and Rory was there in 1992, soon after the Berlin Wall opened up. So we made the trek north to Berlin (again, by train), and stayed a few extra days before the concert. Berlin is a fascinating place–it’s a huge, sprawl of a city, and because much of it developed as two separate cities, it’s hard to really say where the “center” is. As the “eye of the storm” for both WW II and the Cold War, it literally bears its battle scars. Sites along the River Spree are still riddled with bullet holes, and there are still parts of the Berlin Wall standing for the sake of historic, and artistic, posterity.

Here are a few photos

The view from the top of Berlinerdom

Entrance to one of Berlin’s famous underground clubs.

Part of the East Side Gallery, painted on a remnant of the Berlin Wall.

The top of the Reichstag building.

“U-bahn” Station

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

We were barely back in LJU a week when it was time to pack up and leave again for a two week trip to visit friends, family, and go to a big music festival. Except for getting from LJU to London, this was all done by rail.

Romsey

Rory has several cousins living in England from his dad’s side of the family, the Grout family. In particular, the brothers Martin, Mark, and Nick, plus their spouses, kids, and pets, comprise the Grouts of today. Rory gave up a long time ago trying to figure out what, exactly, kind of cousins they are–his mind shuts down when trying to figure out how many times removed they are. They’re just cousins, and they’re lovely people to spend time with. The first and only time Rory has seen all three brothers in one place was 40 years ago when he was going to school in London.

A good ole fashioned pub lunch with the Grouts.

Our hosts Nick and Jo Anne showed us all around the town of Romsey, the towns and villages around Romsey, and the New Forest National park. It’s been called “New Forest” since 1086. The beautiful park is home to tons of flora and fauna, most notably herds of wild ponies. Who knew such a thing existed? But sure enough, they do, and Nick assured us that they can be somewhat aggressive. Don’t even attempt a picnic when they’re around–you will be mugged for your sandwich.

Wild pony!

Our hosts and guides Nick and Toby (knighted Sir Toby during our stay 🙂

After a few restful days in Romsey, it was time for the next adventure, which was our first ever ride on the Eurostar. This got us from London to Amsterdam in about 5 hours. In 1983, Rory did the same trip by ferry–it took more like 16 hours. First we got to take in the lovely St. Pancras train station, which is where the Eurostar launches from.

Amsterdam

A couple of years ago, our niece Jessica (Rory’s sister’s daughter) and her husband Nick moved to Amsterdam from Portland as Nick was transferred there by his employer Nike. We dropped in on them and their 5 year old daughter Cecil for a few days. They live in a beautiful old house near the Museum Quarter–a very classically Amsterdam kind of place, complete with high ceilings and a steep staircase.

Nick, Jessica, Cecil, and a circa-1970 booze holder disguised as a knight’s helmet, inherited from Rory’s dad.

Most of our days in Amsterdam were spent going to museums. It was rainy, and our hosts had Amsterdam museum cards that allow for free admission to most of them. So we had leisurely visits to the Van Gogh, Stedelijk, and WWII Resistance Museums, as well as plenty of time for just hanging out and playing with Cecil. We had just been to Amsterdam in 2021, so not feeling compelled to see everything that was new meant for a more relaxed time. Photos….

A Van Gogh deep cut–he was heavily influenced by Japanese art from the time.

A wall of anti-war posters at the Stedelijk.

From the Resistance Museum

Cecil the master transit planner and her creation.

Family selfie in a pizza restaurant.

Utrecht & Le Guess Who

The next stop was just 30 minutes by train away, the college town of Utrecht. Utrecht is the site of “Le Guess Who,” a massive music festival that features tons of international, avant garde, indy rock, hip hop, electronic….well, you get the picture. No huge headliners (unless you consider Stereolab huge), and everything happening in small venues. The main site for the festival was “TivoliBredenburg,” a single, huge building that houses about 6 different music venues. It was like the Winchester Mystery House of concert venues–getting around it could be disorienting, especially at first, and it seemed like parts were kind of slapped together in an ad hoc sort of way. Here are some photos from the festival and around Utrecht.

Outside our front door. We had a little apartment right on the canal.

“Winkel & Sinkel.“

Rachika Nayar (New York)

The mighty Bixiga 70 (Brazil)

Nostalgia trip with Stereolab.

Hamerelwald & Hannover

Lori and Thilo are friends that we met in San Francisco in the 1990s–Rory had worked with Lori for a few years at Image Conscious. In the late-90s, they moved back to Thilo’s hometown in Germany for a while, then moved to Lori’s old stomping ground in Hawaii, and in 2021 moved back to Germany where they live now with their daughter Nohea. They call Hamerewald their home–it’s a small, quiet village a 30 minute train ride to Hannover. We spent time hanging out and eating delicious meals (Thilo is a professional chef–lucky us), and made a couple of trips into Hannover.

In Hannover we visited the Sprengel Museum, which has a world class art collection. We also walked around the center a bit (including the rathaus–that’s German for City Hall), some beautiful parks, and a great market hall that included an outlet store for Bahlsen, baker of fine German cookies, lebkuchen, stollen, and other desserts. Rory has never seen Krista so excited about processed dessert products–this is part of her heritage. While we were in Hamerewald we found out that Deutsche-Bahn was going on a one day strike the day we were supposed to leave home, which gave us a whole extra sunny day there.

From the Sprengel Museum

New, and somewhat controversial, stained glass in the main cathedral. Can you find the flies?

Inside the rathaus.

And with that, we made our way back home to Ljubljana, after many visits, museums, train rides, and good times. Thank you for actually making it to the end of this long blog post!